Which U.S. States Are Named After Kings and Queens? By Matt Rosenberg Updated August 10, 2016. Seven of the U.S. states are named after sovereigns - four are named for kings and three are named for queens. These include some of the oldest colonies and territories in what is now the United States and the royal names paid tribute to the rulers of either France and England. The list of states includes Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. Can you guess which kings and queens inspired each name? The 'Carolinas' Have British Royalty Roots North and South Carolina have a long and complicated history. Two of the 13 original colonies, they began as a single colony but were divided shortly after because it was too much land to govern. The name 'Carolina' is often attributed as an honor of King Charles I of England (1625-1649), yet that is not entirely true. What is fact is that Charles is 'Carolus' in Latin and that inspired 'Carolina.' However, the French explorer, Jean Ribault first called the region Carolina when he tried colonizing Florida in the 1560's.

During that time, he established an outpost known as Charlesfort in what is now South Carolina. The French King at the time? Charles IX who was crowned in 1560. When the British colonists established their settlements in the Carolinas, it was shortly after the 1649 execution of King Charles I of England and they retained the name in his honor. When his son took over the crown in 1661, the colonies were also an honor to his rule. In a way, the Carolinas pay tribute to all three King Charles. 'Georgia' Was Inspired by a British King Georgia was one of the original 13 colonies that became the United States. It was the last colony established and it became official in 1732, just five years after King George II was crowned King of England. The name 'Georgia' was clearly inspired by the new king. The suffix -ia was used often by the colonizing nations when naming new lands in honor of important people. King George II did not live long enough to see his namesake become a state. He died in 1760 and was succeeded by his grandson, King George III, who reigned during the American Revolutionary War.

'Louisiana' Has French Origins In 1671, French explorers claimed a large portion of central North America for France. They named the area in honor of King Louis XIV, who reigned from 1643 until his death in 1715. The name 'Louisiana' begins with a clear reference to the king. The suffix -iana is often used to refer to a collection of objects in regards to the collector. Therefore, we can loosely associate Louisiana as 'a collection of lands owned by King Louis XIV.' This territory became known as the Louisiana Territory and was purchased by Thomas Jefferson in 1803. In total, the Louisiana Purchase was for 828,000 square miles between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. The state of Louisiana formed the southern border and became a state in 1812. 'Maryland' Was Named After a British Queen Maryland also has an association with King Charles I yet, in this case, it was named for his wife. George Calvert was granted a charter in 1632 for a region east of the Potomac. The first settlement was St. Mary's and the territory was named Maryland.

All of this was in honor of Henrietta Maria, queen consort of Charles I of England and daughter of King Henry IV of France. The 'Virginias' Were Named for a Virgin Queen Virginia (and subsequently West Virginia) was settled by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584. He named this new land after the English monarch of the time, Queen Elizabeth I. But how did he get 'Virginia' out of Elizabeth? Elizabeth I was crowned in 1559 and died in 1603. During her 44 years as queen , she never married and she earned the nickname of the "Virgin Queen." That is how the Virginia's got their name, but whether the monarch was true in her virginity is a matter of much debate and speculation. Origin of "Virginia" | State Symbols USA Origin of "Virginia" Painting of Queen Elizabeth I (public domain image on Wikipedia ). What does "Virginia" mean? The state of Virginia was named after England's Queen Elizabeth I. In the early 1600's, all of North America that was not Spanish or French was then called "Virginia" in honor of "The Virgin Queen," and the earliest English colonial expeditions were sent by the Virginia Company of London.

Virginia became the 10th state on June 25, 1788. Virginia The Quick 13: Where the 13 Colonies Got Their Names | Mental Floss The Quick 13: Where the 13 Colonies Got Their Names Image credit: Like us on Facebook I think today's Q10 is pretty self-explanatory, no? So, I'll just wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving (or just a wonderful rest of the week if you're not celebrating) and be on my way to visit my parents. Mmm, homecooked food that I didn't have to make. Quick Edit: You guys are totally right, I forgot Delaware - THE FIRST STATE! When I combined the Carolinas as 12 and 13 I guess I stopped counting. Wayne Campbell would be so disappointed in me... 1. New Hampshire started out at the Province of New Hampshire. It was named by John Mason after the county of Hampshire in England (home of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens). 2. Likewise, Massachusetts was originally the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

It was named after an Algonquian tribe, the Massachusett, which translates to something along the lines of "people of the great hill" or "at the place of large hills", referring to the famous Blue Hills. 3. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations is sure a mouthful, so I'm glad it's been shortened to Rhode Island. That's just a colloquialism, though "“ the official name is still The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Basically, Italian explorer Giovanni Verrazano compared what is now Block Island to the Island of Rhodes in size. And in 1636, Roger Williams was given some land at the top of Narragansett Bay by Indian chiefs Canonicus and Miantonomi. Williams decided to call the land "Providence Plantations" because he felt that God had guided him there. The story is longer than this, and it's actually really interesting. You can check it out at the Rhode Island Office of the Secretary of State. 4. Connecticut Colony got its name thanks to the Connecticut River (which obviously wasn't named that at the time).

The word comes from the Indian word "Quinnehtukqut", which means, roughly, "Beside the long tidal river." So the Connecticut River is sort of called, "Beside the Long Tidal River River". 5. New York. You'll see in a minute that King Charles I and II basically included shout outs to their friends and family all over the 13 Colonies. And New York is one of them. Most of us know it was originally called New Amsterdam when the Dutch were in possession of it "“ it was when the British took over that it received its current name. But why? To honor King Charles II's brother, the Duke of York and Albany (see?). 6. New Jersey got its name from an island in the English Channel, named, appropriately, Jersey. 7. Pennsylvania, of course, was named after William Penn. And "Sylvania" is Latin for woods or woodland, so Pennsylvania = Penn's woods.

I'm curious as to how Penn got to name the state after himself, though "“ the 1680 charter was provided by King Charles II, who had a propensity for granting charters on the condition that the new territories be named after his nearest and dearest. 8. Georgia's another one named for a King "“ King George II, of course. George granted the charter in 1733, stipulating that the territory bear his name. It was the last of the 13 colonies. 9. Virginia was named after the first Queen Elizabeth, the Virgin queen (who was almost certainly not a virgin queen). West Virginia wasn't a separate state until 1861. 10. Maryland received its name by edict, not by choice. Cecil Calvert, the 2nd Lord Baltimore, received a charter from Charles I of England for this new colony. But there was a catch: the colony must be named after Charles' wife, Queen Henrietta Mary (she went by Queen Mary). 11, 12. North Carolina and South Carolina were considered one big unit until they divided up in 1729.

By this time, King Charles II was in power and provided the charters, specifying that they be named after his father, King Charles I. Charles = Carolina? Yep. Caroliinus is a Latin word, an adjective derived from the Latin Charles "“ Carolus. 13. According to the book State Names, Seals, Flags, and Symbols , the state of Delaware and the Delaware Indians are named after the Delaware River. The Delaware River, in turn, is named after Sir Thomas West, Lord de la Warr. And, a bonus: Vermont is named because, after seeing the Green Mountains, Samuel de Champlain referred to it as "Verd Mont" (green mountains) on a map in his native French language. November 26, 2008 - 6:10am Elizabeth I (1533–1603) Elizabeth I (1533–1603) Contributed by Mary Hill Cole Elizabeth I was queen of England from 1558 to 1603, and Virginia was named in honor of her.

Daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth Tudor became queen at the death of her married but childless half-sister Mary I. Elizabeth remained single, and her image as the "virgin queen" permeated the arts and politics of her reign, even as she used the possibility of marriage to shape foreign policy. Her reign saw the establishment of the Protestant Church of England in a form that has lasted for centuries. She faced a rebellion and plots in favor of her Catholic cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, whose flight to England and claims to its throne caused Elizabeth first to imprison and then to execute her. Elizabeth oversaw her navy's defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, a victory that marked a high point of English protestant and nationalistic fervor. In the 1580s, she encouraged Sir Walter Raleigh 's ventures to the New World, and even though his colonies at Roanoke failed, their brief existence enabled the English explorers to claim much of the eastern coast of North America as "Virginia." Elizabeth's love and patronage of plays, pageants, literature, and the fine arts was at the heart of the English Renaissance.

Elizabeth was famous for her linguistic skills, sharp wit and temper, educated mind, frugality, and political caution. In her speeches, civic processions, and travels around the kingdom, she cultivated her popularity with her subjects. Elizabeth died in 1603 and was succeeded by her cousin James VI of Scotland. MORE... In This Entry Early Years On September 7, 1533, Elizabeth Tudor was born a disappointment to all. Her mother, Anne Boleyn, had retired to Greenwich Palace to give birth, confident in her future as the mother of England's next king. Her optimistic father, Henry VIII, had shrugged off papal authority and become Supreme Head of a national church in large part because he wanted a legitimate male heir. The Catholic supporters of Henry's popular, but now discarded, first wife, Catherine of Aragon, saw the punishing hand of God in the arrival of another royal bastard; Protestant reformers joined the royal parents in hoping that the next child would be a healthy boy who would solidify the dynasty and new Church of England. Queen Elizabeth Named for her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth spent her early years away from her parents in a separate household shared with her elder half-sister, Mary Tudor.

Under the tutelage of the humanist scholar Roger Ascham, Elizabeth read philosophy and theology and learned Latin, French, Italian, and Greek, intellectual pursuits that complemented her domestic skills in embroidery, dancing, and playing the virginals (an early harpsichord). After Edward VI became king at the death of their father in 1547, she maintained cordial relations with her half-brother, whose Protestant views she shared. But during Mary's five years as England's first ruling queen, from 1553 to 1558, Elizabeth's life was often at risk. The 1554 revolt led by Sir Thomas Wyatt against Mary's Catholicism and her new Spanish husband, Philip of Spain (later King Philip II), resulted in Elizabeth's imprisonment in the Tower of London and then house arrest for her supposed participation in the plot. However, her strategies of politic silence, nominal religious conformity, convenient illnesses, and letters of loyalty enabled the vulnerable Elizabeth to survive and ascend the throne when Mary died childless on November 17, 1558.

Queen Elizabeth's first actions as queen were to appoint advisors, celebrate her coronation in Westminster Abbey on January 15, 1559, and call a session of Parliament. Sir William Cecil joined the Privy Council as Principal Secretary and later Lord Treasurer and he remained her close, trusted confidant until his death forty years later. Her other lifelong friend and councillor, always at the queen's side as her Master of the Horse, was Sir Robert Dudley, arguably the man Elizabeth loved most and might have married, had not the scandal from his wife's suspicious but probably accidental death in 1560 dissuaded the cautious queen. Dudley was so close to Elizabeth that in 1562 the ill queen wanted him to be Lord Protector of England should she die from smallpox, but neither the privy councillors nor her people approved of Dudley as protector or consort. When he died in 1588, Elizabeth carried with her "his last letter." Establishing the Church of England with the queen as its Supreme Governor was a task that occupied Elizabeth; her Archbishop of Canterbury, Matthew Parker; and Parliament until 1563.

The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, along with a new Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles of religious instruction, established the special mixture of Protestant doctrine and Catholic ritual that, in the queen's view, settled the religious disputes of the English Reformation. Although this Elizabethan settlement, with its "via media," or middle way, gradually satisfied most Protestants, some so-called Puritans pushed for more reforms. Some Catholics tried to replace Elizabeth with her Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland. Under pressure from Protestant noblemen, Mary yielded her throne to her baby son, James VI, and fled Scotland in 1568 for the relative safety of England, where she remained under house arrest away from the English court and queen. Queen Elizabeth I From 1559 to 1582, Elizabeth conducted a series of courtships with the rulers of Sweden, France, and the Holy Roman Empire. These many marital negotiations dovetailed with her foreign policy, but religious stumbling blocks and her own reluctance essentially ended them all.

Addressing her first Parliament in 1559, Elizabeth stressed her desire to remain single while promising that God would take care of the succession: "[I]n the end this shall be for me sufficient: that a marble stone shall declare that a queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin." Seven years later, she told Parliament, "I say again I will marry as soon as I can conveniently, if God take not him away with whom I mind to marry, or myself … And I hope to have children; otherwise I would never marry." In 1576, Elizabeth still proclaimed the virtues of virginity: "[I]f I were a milkmaid with a pail on mine arm, whereby my private person might be little set by, I would not forsake that single state to match myself with the greatest monarch." Her portraits also stressed her virginity through images of her with unbound hair, pearls, pelicans, and sieves, even as they highlighted her regal authority to control the seas, the kingdom, and all life within it. Elizabeth never married, and the succession to the throne remained unsettled.

the Queene With no child to succeed her and no recognized heir, Elizabeth faced dangers at home and from abroad. In 1569, Catholic earls in the north of England revolted in favor of Mary Stuart, and, with poor timing, a year later Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth as a heretic and nullified her sovereign authority, calling on English Catholics to rise up against her rule. The highest peer of the realm, Thomas Howard, fourth duke of Norfolk, flouted Elizabeth's authority by pursuing a marriage to Mary Stuart that could have made him king of England; his treason led to his trial and execution in 1572. Elizabeth refused to meet Mary Stuart, who still claimed the English crown, and she turned to the spy network of Sir Francis Walsingham to ensure her own safety in the midst of additional plots against her in the 1580s. When Walsingham produced written proof of Mary's support of efforts to assassinate her, Elizabeth had her tried and, after the expected guilty verdict, executed. With the death of Mary Stuart came bolder Spanish efforts to overthrow Elizabeth.

Late in the summer of 1588, Philip II sent a flotilla of ships from Cádiz into the English Channel in an attempt to invade England. Elizabeth joined Robert Dudley at Tilbury to rally her troops, while her navy under the command of Lord Admiral Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake fought the Spanish until "Protestant winds" blew the invaders north past Scotland. In the victorious aftermath and celebration of their deliverance, the English turned Elizabeth's Accession Day, November 17, into a national holiday. Virginia) As tensions with Spain rose in the 1580s, Elizabeth encouraged Walter Raleigh's ventures to the New World. On March 24, 1584, the queen granted a license to Raleigh that empowered him to explore and colonize lands unclaimed by Christian kings; in return, she would receive one-fifth of the treasures there, and she allowed Raleigh to name the lands "Virginia." In typical fashion, Elizabeth gave him symbolic support but little money. An expedition funded by Raleigh reached Roanoke Island on July 13, 1584.

After a failed first attempt at establishing a colony in 1585–1586, John White landed at Roanoke in July 1587 with 115 settlers, and three weeks later White's granddaughter, the first English child born in the New World, was baptized Virginia Dare in honor of the queen. Even though the Roanoke Island colony was "lost" by 1590, it enabled the English explorers to claim as Virginia much of the eastern coast of North America. Later Years During the fifteen years after the Armada's defeat, challenges remained for Elizabeth. Her close advisors Dudley, Walsingham, and Sir Christopher Hatton, died; William Cecil, first baron Burghley, under the burden of age, shifted his duties to his son Robert Cecil; and James VI of Scotland attracted growing attention as the assumed but not accepted heir to the queen. Her young new favorite, Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex and Dudley's stepson, pressed for more rewards than Elizabeth felt he merited. When the proud, frustrated Essex tried to rouse Londoners in revolt, the queen had him executed in 1601.

I Even in her later years, Elizabeth continued to move her court on summer progresses, extended travels that fostered her popularity and policies during the hospitality and entertainments shared by the queen and her people. Until early 1603, Elizabeth remained in good health, but she deeply felt the death of her cousin, Catherine Howard, countess of Nottingham, and lost her will to live. Developing either bronchitis or pneumonia, she declined late in February, gradually stopped eating, and spent several days on the floor on pillows rather than return to bed. After indicating that James VI of Scotland would be the next ruler of England (as James I), she died on March 24, 1603, at Richmond Palace. Her body, probably embalmed, lay in state for public viewing at Whitehall Palace until her funeral and burial under the altar in Westminster Abbey on April 28, 1603. In 1606, James I had her body disinterred and reburied with her half-sister Mary Tudor in a side chapel where it is today.

Time Line September 7, 1533 - Elizabeth Tudor is born at Greenwich Palace, the daughter of King Henry VIII of England and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. January 28, 1547 - King Henry VIII of England dies and is succeeded by his youngest child, Edward VI. July 6, 1553 - King Edward VI of England dies, leaving the crown to his cousin Lady Jane Grey, who rules for only nine days. Edward's half-sister Mary Tudor raises an army, claims her throne, and imprisons Grey. Mary I is the first queen regnant of England. January 25, 1554 - Sir Thomas Wyatt leads a revolt to protest Queen Mary's intended marriage to Philip II of Spain and to put Princess Elizabeth on the throne. Elizabeth denies knowledge of Wyatt's plans, but the queen orders her to the Tower of London for questioning. May 19, 1554 - Imprisoned since January after being implicated in a plot against Queen Mary, Princess Elizabeth leaves the Tower of London for house arrest at Woodstock.

November 17, 1558 - Queen Mary I of England dies, leaving the crown to her half-sister Elizabeth. January 15, 1559 - Elizabeth I is crowned queen of England at Westminster Abbey. September 8, 1560 - Sir Robert Dudley's wife, Amy Robsart, dies from a fall down the stairs at a friend's home in Oxfordshire, fueling rumors that Dudley and Elizabeth conspired to kill her in order to marry. An inquest determines that there was no foul play. June 1562 - Elizabeth I, queen of England, and her cousin Mary, queen of Scotland, plan to meet in York, but the diplomatic fallout of religious conflict in France causes Elizabeth to cancel the visit. The two queens never meet. October 1562 - Elizabeth I, queen of England, contracts smallpox but suffers few scars. The Privy Council refuses her desire that Sir Robert Dudley be named Lord Protector in case of her death.

September 29, 1564 - Sir Robert Dudley becomes the first earl of Leicester, a title that Elizabeth I, queen of England, hopes will enhance his status as a potential match for the widowed Mary, queen of Scotland. July 29, 1565 - Mary, Queen of Scots, marries her first cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, of England. Their relationship quickly collapses. March 9, 1566 - David Rizzio, the Italian private secretary of Mary, queen of Scotland, is murdered by a group of Protestant noblemen while at dinner with the queen, who is six months pregnant. The queen's king consort, Henry Stuart, lord Darnley, is later implicated in the plot. June 19, 1566 - James Stuart is born at Edinburgh Castle, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. July 24, 1567 - Mary, Queen of Scots, abdicates the throne in favor of her thirteen-month-old son, who is now known as James VI.

1568–1587 - Mary Stuart, former queen of Scotland and cousin to Queen Elizabeth I, is held under house arrest in north-central England in the custody of loyal courtiers, including George Talbot, sixth earl of Shrewsbury and his wife Elizabeth, countess of Hardwick. May 16, 1568 - Mary Stuart flees Scotland for England, where she seeks safety and English support to regain her crown. Elizabeth refuses to meet with her because Mary has not accepted Elizabeth's legitimacy as queen. November 1569 - Thomas Percy, seventh earl of Northumberland, and Charles Neville, sixth earl of Westmoreland, lead a failed revolt in northern England against Queen Elizabeth. They oppose her Protestant policies and her reliance upon Sir William Cecil, and support Mary Stuart's claim to the English throne. April 27, 1570 - Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth of England in a belated attempt to support the revolt led by Thomas Percy, seventh earl of Northumberland, and Charles Neville, sixth earl of Westmoreland.

June 2, 1572 - Thomas Howard, fourth duke of Norfolk, is tried and executed for his participation in the Ridolfi plot, an attempt to overthrow Queen Elizabeth of England in favor of her cousin Mary Stuart, whom Norfolk hopes to marry. July 9–27, 1575 - As part of her regular summer progress, Queen Elizabeth of England visits Robert Dudley, first earl of Leicester, for one of the most costly and extravagant festivals of her reign, at Kenilworth in Warwickshire. 1579–1582 - Queen Elizabeth of England negotiates her last prospect of marriage with Francis, duke of Anjou and Alençon, and son of the powerful Catherine de Medici. She affectionately nicknames him "frog," but declines to marry. Winter 1584–1585 - Queen Elizabeth I develops a strategy in her war against Spain. She will send an army to the Netherlands to fight on behalf of the Protestants, Sir Francis Drake to the West Indies to disrupt Spanish shipping, and colonists to Roanoke Island to establish a harbor for privateers.

February 8, 1587 - After being tried and convicted of plotting the death of Queen Elizabeth of England, Mary Stuart is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire. August 1588 - The Spanish Armada engages with the English navy in the English Channel and, after losing several ships, returns to Spain. September 4, 1588 - Sir Robert Dudley, first earl of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth's Master of the Horse and longtime confidant, dies. August 4, 1589 - Sir William Cecil, first baron Burghley, dies. He was secretary of state under King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth I, and Lord Treasurer from 1572 until his death. February 25, 1601 - Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex, is beheaded for leading a failed rebellion against Queen Elizabeth in London. March 24, 1603 - Queen Elizabeth I dies at Richmond Palace and is succeeded by James VI of Scotland, who unites the thrones of England and Scotland, ruling the former as James I.

April 28, 1603 - The funeral of Queen Elizabeth is held at Westminster Abbey, where she is buried. Her successor, James I, in keeping with royal custom, does not attend the service. Categories Further Reading Doran, Susan and Thomas Freeman, eds. The Myth of Elizabeth. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Levin, Carole. "The Heart and Stomach of a King": Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994. Marcus, Leah S., Janel Mueller, and Mary Beth Rose, eds. Elizabeth I: Collected Works. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Starkey, David and Susan Doran, eds. Elizabeth: The Exhibition at the National Maritime Museum. London, England: Chatto & Windus, 2003. Stump, Donald and Susan M. Felch. Elizabeth I and Her Age: A Norton Critical Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. Wormald, Jenny. Mary, Queen of Scots: Politics, Passion and a Kingdom Lost. New York: St.

Martin's Press, 2001. Cite This Entry APA Citation: alphaDictionary * The Origins of US State Names Alabama Alabama was named after the Alabama River. The river was named for the Alabama Indians originally living in region of that river, a subgroup of the Chickasaws and not the current Alabamas. The appellation first appeared in three accounts of the Hernando de Soto expedition of 1540, spelled Alibamo by Garcillasso de la Vega, Alibamu by the Knight of Elvas, and Limamu by Rodrigo Ranjel (in the last form, the loss of the initial vowel and the replacement of [b] by [m] were common in the language). It is possible that Alabama originated as a compound noun based on Choctaw, alba "vegetation, plants, herbs" + amo "gatherer, picker". "Plant gatherers" would be an apt description of the Alabama Indians of that time since they did clear land for farming. ( Reference ) Alaska Alaska came from an Aleut (Yupik) word alaxsxaq [ah-lock-shock] "the mainland, the land facing the sea".

The Russians were the first Europeans in Alaska and they pronounced the word Alyaska. When the US purchased Alaska from the Russians the name was only slightly modified to what it is today. ( Reference ) Arizona Calling this state the "arid zona" is cute and semantically appropriate but it is only someone's idea of word play. Arizona was inherited from the Spanish Arizonac, a word virtually identical to Basque arizonac "good oak". However, it isn't clear why the Spanish would choose a Basque word for (at the time) a Mexican territory and the semantic fit is weaker than that of arid zona. The name of this state is most probably a Native American word, possibly an O'odham (Pima) word meaning "having a little spring" made up of ali "little" + sona-g "spring-having"—plus a little corruption from the Spanish. (See Bright, William Native American Placenames of the United States, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004, p. 47.) Georgia This state was named in honor of King George II of England.

Around 1730 James Oglethorpe formulated a plan to obtain the release of people from London's debtors' prison and to establish a new colony, south of Carolina, to be inhabited by the "worthy poor" of London. In a Royal Charter signed June 20, 1732, King George II granted the right for the colony of Georgia and in February, 1733, a small group of settlers sailed up the Savannah River and established the colony. In gratitude to King George II the colony was named Georgia. ( Reference ) Hawaii The name of this archipelago state was taken from the largest island. Though Captain James Cook called the islands the Sandwich Islands in honor of the Earl of Sandwich in 1778, King Kamehameha I united the islands under his rule 1819 as the Kingdom of Hawaii. One theory of the origin of the name of the largest island is that it was an old compound noun based on the words hawa "homeland" and ii "small, active". The other theory is that the name comes from Hawaii Loa who, according to tradition, was the Polynesian who originally discovered them. Neither explanation is supported by evidence, however.

( Reference ) Idaho The claim that Idaho's name is the result of a hoax is itself a hoax ( click here ). Idaho is an English corruption of the Kiowa-Apache word idaahe "enemy", a name the Kiowas applied to the Comanches when they migrated to southern Colorado and came in contact with them in territory the Comanches considered their own. The move led to war among the two tribes. This word is still found in the name of Idaho Springs, now in the Denver-Aurora metro area. It spread east to Ohio (Pike County) and other eastern states and was applied, for whatever reason, to Idaho when it was established as a territory on March 4, 1863. (See Bright, William Native American Placenames of the United States, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004, p. 177.) Indiana This state has one of the most obvious names in the US with the rather ironic meaning, "the land of Indians." It was given to the Indiana Territory by the United States Congress when Indiana was created from the Northwest Territory in 1800. Indiana joined the Union in 1816 as the 19th state.

Iowa The state of Iowa was named for the Native Americans living in that territory at the time, the Iowas. Despite the report of the 1879 General Assembly of Iowa, which proclaimed that this word means "the beautiful land", it is actually a Dakota Sioux word given to the Iowas in jest meaning "sleepy ones". The Iowas call themselves [bah-ko-jay] "the gray/ashy heads". According to tradition, this name came from an incident in their history when, while camping in the Iowa River valley, a gust of wind blew a cloud of sand and campfire ashes onto their heads. ( Reference ) Kansas This state was named after the Kansas River that flows through it. The river was named after the Kaw, an American Indian people of the central Midwestern United States. The Kaw have also been known as the Kanza, a word some say means "Wind People". However, no evidence supports this claim. If it had any meaning other than to designate the Kanza people, it was probably "plum". ( Reference ) Kentucky The Kentucky Encyclopedia claims that the state of Kentucky was named for the Kentucky River, as in the case of several other states.

The origin of the river's name has never been definitively identified but there have been several suggestions, including an Iroquoian name meaning "place of meadows", an Algonquian term for a river bottom, or a Shawnee term for the head of a river. More likely, however, it comes from the Wyandot (Iroquoian) word kentahteh "tomorrow, the coming day", a word that originally applied to the Iroquoian possessions on the Ohio but later to the lands to the south of the Ohio. Those territories represented the land where they (the Wyandots) would live tomorrow, in the future." A good translation of the word as it came to apply to the country of Kentucky would then be "The Land of Tomorrow". ( Reference ) Louisiana The first permanent settlement in the Louisiana Territory was at Fort Maurepas (now Ocean Springs, Mississippi, near Biloxi), founded by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, a French military officer from Canada, in 1699. The French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle named the region Louisiana to honor France's King Louis XIV in 1682.

( Reference ) Maine No one has a clue about this one. The name first appears in writing in 1622 as a province, in a charter of the Council of New England granting land to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason. The portion which came to be Captain Mason's alone in 1629, he named New Hampshire. In the same year, a second charter labeled it Laconia. Gorges volleyed with yet another name for his territory: New Somerset. This was strongly disliked by King Charles; he responded in a 1639 charter that it "shall forever hereafter be called and named the Province or County of Mayne and not by any other name or names whatsoever". Despite the tone of finality, this still was not the last word: other suggestions were Yorkshire, Lygonia and Columbus, the latter two appearing as late as 1819, when statehood was imminent.

( Reference ) Maryland In 1629, George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore in the Irish House of Lords, applied to Charles I (1600-1649) for a new royal charter for what was to become the Province of Maryland, which was at the time the northern part of Virginia. George Calvert died in April 1632, but a charter for "Maryland Colony" (in Latin "Terra Maria") was granted to his son, Caecilius Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore, on June 20, 1632. The new colony was named in honor of Henrietta Maria (1609-1669), Queen Consort of Charles I. Three years earlier, Charles established the colony of Carolina . ( Reference 1 • Reference 2 ) Massachusetts The Massachusetts Bay Colony took its name from that of the indigenous Massachusett people. The colony's name probably started out as "the Massachusetts' Bay".

The name can be segmented (with English spelling) as mass-achu-s-et, comprising mass "big" + achu "hill" + s "small" (diminutive ending) -et, a locative suffix meaning "place of". It is generally taken as a reference to the Great Blue Hills, visible from the I-93 beltway south of Milton. The problem is that the usual word for "big" in Algonquian is miss, as in missegkon "big rain = hail" and missittspu "big =(heavy) frost", not mass (see also Mississippi and Missouri for other examples of miss "big, large"). Mass usually meant "arrowhead", so the hill was more probably named "Arrowhead Hill". ( Reference 1 • Reference 2 • Dr. Ives Goddard, Chief Linguist, The Smithsonian Institute (correspondence) Minnesota The word Minnesota comes from the Dakota name for the Minnesota River, mnisota, a compound noun made up of mni "water" + sota "cloudy, muddy".

Dakotas demonstrated the name to early settlers by dropping milk into water and calling it, "mnisota." Since English does not allow words beginning with [mn], settlers inserted a vowel between these two sounds, producing mini which they wrote as "minne". Many locations in the state contain the Dakota word for water, such as Minnehaha Falls from mni + haha "falls", i.e. "Waterfall Falls" and not "laughing waters" as is commonly thought, Minneiska "white water", Minnetonka, "big water", Minnetrista "crooked water", and Minneapolis which is a combination of mni and Greek polis "city". ( Reference ) Mississippi Mississippi is named for the Mississippi river which forms its western boundary. When Abraham Lincoln wrote, "the Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea," in reference to the river in a letter of August 27, 1863, he promoted an urban myth that persists today. In fact, Mississippi never meant "Father of Waters". In 1666 French explorers in the Great Lakes region recorded the Ojibwa (Algonquian) name for the river as Messipi.

It was actually the phrase miss sepi "big river" (see also Massachusetts and Missouri for the word miss "big, large"). This name traveled down the length of the river, dominating all others. The French took the name with them as they went down Big River to its delta, and it superseded all the other names for Big River used by local Indian tribes and by earlier Spanish explorers. In 1798 Congress applied the Ojibwa name of the river to the territory of Mississippi, which later became the state. ( Reference ) Missouri Missouri took its name from the Missouri river. The river was named after a tribe of southern Sioux people called the Missouris, who lived along the river. The word missouri at one time meant "large canoe" and was applied both to the people and the place where they lived. (See also Massachusetts and Mississippi for the word miss "big, large".) ( Reference ) Montana The name of this Northwestern state is a variation of the Spanish word montaña "mountain". No one knows who first applied it or under what circumstances.

Subsequent to the Lewis and Clark expedition, Montana became a United States territory (Montana Territory) on May 26, 1864 and the 41st state on November 8, 1889. ( Reference ) Nebraska In 1842 Lieutenant John Fremont set out on an expedition mapping overland routes to the West. In the course of his expedition, he came in contact with the Oto (Missouri-Oto) people living along what is known today as the Platte River. The Otos called the river, according to Fremont, nebraska, which he took to mean "flat river" hence the river's current name. Fremont suggested this name for the territory and in 1844 the Secretary of War approved the name and this region became known as the Nebraska Country. ( Reference ) Nevada Although the name is derived from the Spanish word nevada "snowy, snow-covered", the local pronunciation of the state's name is not Spanish [neh-vah-dah], but good ol' American [nuh-vae-duh]. The name became official when President James Buchanan created the territory of Nevada March 2, 1861.

On October 31, 1864, President Lincoln proclaimed Nevada's admission to the Union as the 36th state. ( Reference ) New Jersey Sir John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret received a royal charter from King Charles II for a colony in the New World on June 24, 1664 and named this colony for the island of Jersey in the English Channel. Carteret had been born in Jersey and had spent several years as Lieutenant Governor of the island. Charles II also granted Pennsylvania to William Penn and New York to his cousin James II, the Duke of York. ( Reference ) New Mexico The region of New Mexico originally belonged to New Spain, as Mexico was called until Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821). It was first explored by Spaniard Francisco de Ibarra in 1562, who called the region Nueva Vizcaya "New Biscay". The name Mexico is a word based on the Nahuatl Mexihco, whose meaning is unclear. Juan de Oqate founded the San Juan colony on the Rio Grande in 1598 and was made the first governor of the new Province of New Mexico, then a part of Mexico.

The American government established the New Mexico Territory on September 9, 1850 after defeating Mexico in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 with Santa Fe ("Holy Faith") as its capital. ( Reference ) New York New York was named in honor of the Duke of York who received patent to New Netherland from his brother Charles II and sent an expedition to capture it in 1664. The English in the end traded what is today the country of Suriname for New Amsterdam that same year, renaming it New York after the Duke of York, soon to be King James II. Charles II also signed land grants for New Jersey and Pennsylvania . ( Reference ) North Carolina In 1629, King Charles I of England "erected into a province" all the land from Albemarle Sound on the north to the St. John's River on the south, which he directed should be called Carolina. The word Carolina is from the word Carolus, the Latin form of Charles. Charles I (1600-1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, from March 27, 1625 until his execution in 1649.

In 1632 he also established the colony of Maryland . There was one state of Carolina until 1729 when owners of the northern part of the territory sold their interests back to the King and North Carolina became a royal colony. ( Reference ) North Dakota North and South Dakota were one territory until 1889. Dakota was named for the Dakota, a Sioux people who lived in the region, featured in the motion picture, Dances with Wolves . Dakota is apparently a Sioux word for "friends" or "allies." ( Reference ) Ohio A widely held fallacy is that Ohio is an Iroquoian name meaning "beautiful river." This myth originated with a French traveler of about 1750 who called the Ohio "une belle riviere" and mentioned that the local native people called it Ohio. It does not follow, however, that the Frenchman's reaction was the meaning of the word Ohio. While the origin is still very cloudy, it would seem more likely that this word was a Wyandot (Iroquoian) word meaning "large, great" or, used alone, "the great one". This is based on missionary and Indian agent reports of the time.

( Reference ) Oklahoma Oklahoma became the 46th state in the Union on November 16th, 1907. The state's name was chosen by Allen Wright, chief of the Choctaw Nation from 1866 to 1870. Wright combined two Choctaw words, ukla "person" + huma "red" to form the word that first appears in a 1866 Choctaw treaty. So, Oklahoma means "red person", a more subtly ironical memorial to the people who originally lived there than Indiana . ( Reference ) Oregon The name of this state was first published by Jonathan Carver in 1778 in his book Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America. Carver took the name from the writings of Maj. Robert Rogers, an English army officer who used this proper noun in a 1765 petition to the Kingdom of Great Britain. The petition referred to Ouragon and asked for money to finance an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. Where Rogers got the word remains a mystery.

The most plausible explanation is that it came from an engraver's error in naming the Ouisiconsink (Wisconsin River) on a French map published in the early 1700s. In a 2004 article for the Oregon Historical Quarterly, professor Thomas Love and Smithsonian linguist Ives Goddard argue that Rogers chose the word after exposure to either of the Algonquian words wauregan and olighin, both meaning "good and beautiful". Rogers is likely to have heard the terms because of his frequent encounters with Mohegans in the late 1750s. Other suggestions, such as an origin in French ouragan "hurricane" or Spanish oregano are pure speculations without any basis in fact. ( Reference ) Pennsylvania In 1681, Charles II of England granted a land charter to William Penn, due to the fact that a large debt was owed to William Penn's father, Admiral William Penn. one of the largest land grants to an individual in history. That land included both present-day Delaware and Pennsylvania.

The name Pennsylvania is a Latinized word made up of Penn + sylva "woods" + nia (noun suffix) or, roughly, "Penn's Woodland", named in honor of Admiral Penn. Charles II also signed land grants for New Jersey and New York . ( Reference ) Rhode Island The first mention of the name Rhode Island in connection with Narragansett Bay is in a letter of Giovanni da Verrazzano, the Italian explorer, dated July 8, 1524, in which he likens an island near the mouth of Narragansett Bay to the Island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean. Verrazzano probably referred to Block Island rather than to Aquidneck but this fact was not known in England, where the name made news long before the Pilgrims came to New England. Verrazzano's letter was printed in Italian in 1556 and in English in 1582 and 1600, so that it was accessible to the early settlers before they left England. ( Reference ) South Carolina In 1629, King Charles I of England "erected into a province," all the land from Albemarle Sound on the north to the St.

John's River on the south, which he directed should be called Carolina. The word Carolina is from Carolus, the Latin form of Charles. Charles I (1600-1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, from March 27, 1625 until his execution in 1649. In 1632 he also established the colony of Maryland . There was one state of Carolina until 1729 when owners of the northern part of the territory sold their interests back to the King and North Carolina became a royal colony. (See North Carolina .) South Dakota North and South Dakota were one territory until 1889. Dakota took its name from the Dakota (or Lakota), a Sioux people who lived in the region, featured in the motion picture, Dances with Wolves . Dakota is the Sioux word for "friends" or "allies." ( Reference ) Tennessee Tennessee comes from the name of a native American village named Tanasqui through which Captain Juan Pardo, the Spanish explorer, and his men passed in 1567 while traveling inland from South Carolina.

European settlers later encountered a Cherokee town named Tanasi in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee. It is not known whether this was the same town as the one encountered by Juan Pardo but one or both of these names were the predecessors of modern day Tennessee. Pardo said that the word had no meaning but was just a village name. ( Reference ) Utah This state's name comes from a Navajo word yuttahih "higher-ups, people who are higher". Europeans thought this term referred to a people who lived higher up in the White Mountains and when they did, in fact, encounter such a tribe, they called them "Utes". ( Reference ) Vermont Vermont was adopted as the official name of the state on June 30, 1777 as part of the first Vermont constitution. Dr. Thomas Young, a Pennsylvania statesman who suggested that the Pennsylvania constitution serve as a basis for Vermont's, proposed the name Vermont to perpetuate the memory of the Green Mountain Boys. This rebel group, led by Ethan Allen, were named for the long ridge of mountains running north-south through the state.

However, Vermont was first settled by the French and England gained control of the area only in 1763 after the French and Indian Wars, so the name probably originated with them. The problem with this assumption is that "green mountains" in French would be (les) monts verts not verts monts, so the phrase had been subjected to Anglicization. By whom? Probably the entire population. ( Reference ) Virginia At the end of the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603), who was known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married, gave the name Virginia to the whole area explored by the 1584 expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh along the coast of North America. The name eventually applied to the whole coast from South Carolina to Maine. ( Reference ) Washington On August 29, 1851, 27 male settlers met at Cowlitz Landing (south of present-day Olympia) to petition Congress for a Columbia Territory separate from Oregon covering the area between the Columbia River and 49th parallel. The petition was reaffirmed by 44 delegates who met in Monticello on November 25, 1852.

Congress approved the new territory on February 10, 1853, but changed its name to Washington in honor of the first president of the United States, George Washington. U.S. President Millard Fillmore established Washington Territory on March 2, 1853; Washington became a state on November 11, 1889. ( Reference ) West Virginia At the end of the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603), who was known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married, gave the name Virginia to the whole area explored by the 1584 expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh along the coast of North America. The name eventually applied to the whole coast from South Carolina to Maine. The regions making up what is now West Virginia seceded from the state of Virginia rather than join the Confederacy and became the 35th state of the U.S. during the course of the Civil War. ( Reference ) Wisconsin Wisconsin first appears in 1673 in Fr. Jacques Marquette's journal as Mescousing and Miskous, words he thought meant "red stone" in some Algonquian language.

Marquette picked this word up from the Mascouten (Miami, Kickapoo) people he had just visited. A related Algonquian people, the Mesquakie (or Fox), called themselves "Red Earth People" and may have applied the appellation to the nearby river. Modern linguists find that these primary sources do not accurately reflect what is known now about Algonquian languages and can find no word in any of those languages that resemble those in Marquette's journal. Marquette's Meskousing had become Ouisconsin by 1682 in the parlance of the explorer LaSalle and was spelled Wisconsin in the early nineteenth century after the U.S. took control of the region even though the territorial governor James Doty strongly preferred the spelling Wiskonsan. ( Reference ) Wyoming The name Wyoming was adopted from the Delaware (Lenape) word chwewamink: chw- "big" + eweam- "plains" -enk "place" = "at/on the big plains" and was first used to name the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, where the Lenapes lived. Congressman J. M.

Ashley of Ohio, introduced a bill in the House of Representatives in 1865 to provide a "temporary government for the territory of Wyoming," a name he apparently chose. The bill was referred to a committee where it rested until being passed in 1868. During debate on the bill in the U.S. Senate in 1868, other possible names were suggested, such as Cheyenne, Shoshoni, Arapaho, Sioux, Platte, Big Horn, Yellowstone, Sweetwater and Lincoln. Wyoming was already commonly used and remained the popular choice. ( Reference )

Question: Which US state is named after Queen Elizabeth I?
Answer: Virginia